Swing-state fights escalate over regional carbon trading program

To read the full article from Politico, click here.

Getting Off Fossil Fuels Requires Transportation Makeover

Drastically and rapidly reducing the amount of fossil fuels we burn requires an all-out effort, from individuals and households to businesses and governments. For example, the state of Rhode Island is largely focused on implementable small projects that nibble around the emergency’s edges when what is needed is building big-impact efforts.

Those efforts need to start with the transportation sector, which accounts for nearly 40% of Rhode Island’s greenhouse gas emissions — the state’s largest percentage of climate-changing pollution. Until we get serious about building an efficient and reliable public transit system and significantly reducing vehicle miles traveled, any progress we make with smaller but important efforts will be negated.

Jamie Dickerson, senior director of clean energy and climate programs for the Acadia Center, noted the complexity of my question.

“There are a number of instructive ways to break this question down. One could approach it by economic sector, from a societal or governmental perspective, or from an individual’s or household’s viewpoint,” he wrote. “In our answer, we’ve opted to interpret ‘we’ broadly, meaning we’ve highlighted universal pillars of action that all actors in our society — from policymakers to corporations and households — will need to pursue swiftly to transition us off our reliance on fossil fuels and drive down our emissions, both here in Rhode Island and across the region, nation, and globe.”

Dickerson noted that all five of the Acadia Center’s steps are “underway in some sense, but they all must be accelerated and expanded to avert the worst impacts of climate change.”

Maximize efficiency. Reduce energy consumption and vehicle miles traveled through vital investments in an energy-efficient building stock and a robust public transit system.

Deploy renewables. Build wind, solar, other renewables, and energy storage rapidly to green our electricity supply, aided by significant new transmission line capacity and grid-enhancing technologies to help even more green electrons flow through our power lines, existing and new.

Electrify our end uses. Decarbonize our buildings and vehicles, primarily by converting from combustion technologies — e.g., boilers and furnaces, internal combustion engine vehicles — to efficient, electric technologies such as air- and ground-source heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, thermal energy networks, electric vehicles, and zero-emission buses and trucks.

Build a flexible, dynamic grid. Revamp our utility regulatory system and our grid to be more intelligent and dynamic and to better harness the abundant new flexibility provided by distributed energy resources, from EV charging and heat pump hot water heaters to smart thermostats, solar+storage systems, and other grid-interactive technologies.

Invest and innovate. Invest in deploying cleaner energy in every sector of the economy via both the public and private sectors, and for the most challenging remaining sectors to decarbonize — heavy industry, shipping, aviation — we must support research and development for breakthrough technologies, pursue first-of-their-kind green procurements, and be a laboratory for piloting and demonstrating new solutions.

To read the full article from ecoRI, click here.

Where do all those Amazon EV delivery vans recharge?

Tucked away in the woods off I-495 at a warehouse in Bellingham, dozens of gray Amazon delivery vans spend the night side by side, plugged in to recharge.

The e-commerce giant is far in the lead in electrifying its commercial delivery fleet, and 67 of the new vans stationed in Bellingham make their rounds daily within a 30-mile radius. The electric vans, quieter than their gas-powered counterparts, arrived starting at the end of 2022. They were made by EV upstart Rivian and feature that California company’s recognizably cartoonish headlight design.

Electrifying delivery fleets, and commercial vehicles in general, should bring several benefits, including lowering greenhouse gas emissions, Kyle Murray, Massachusetts Program Director at the nonprofit Acadia Center in Boston. The state’s climate plans call for 25,000 electric trucks and buses on the roads by 2030.

“The commercial transportation sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions,” Murray said. “It is critical that they transition to electric fleets as quickly as possible.”

To read the full article from the Boston Globe, click here.

Will NJ’s new goal mean homes need to replace boilers, furnaces with electric heat pumps?

New Jersey officials are tired of your old furnavce and boiler.

This month, they joined those from eight other states in setting a shared goal to have electric heat pumps provide roughly two-thirds of all residential-scale heating, air conditioning and water heating by 2030. By 2040, the goal is 90%.

The aim is to “reduce the carbon footprint of buildings,” which generate tens of millions of metric tons of CO2e greenhouse gases a year, said New Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette.

A 2022 report from Acadia Center found that electrification of heating systems could bring reductions of 20% or more to the average New Jersey homeowner’s utility bills. The report, commissioned by the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, found that adding electric appliances and winterization strategies along with heat pumps could cut bills in half.

To read the full article from NorthJersey.com, click here.

Op-Ed: Don’t give gas utilities a blank check to pursue dubious ‘alternative fuels’

The gas industry is trying to take New Jersey in the wrong direction on climate action. While other states are preparing consumers and workers to reduce reliance on natural gas, politicians in Trenton are considering legislation that would give gas utilities a blank check to pursue dubious, harmful “alternative fuels” that would only entrench our aging fossil fuel system further. 

The fact is, residents across the Northeast are increasingly turning to the health, economic and climate benefits of highly efficient electric equipment such as heat pumps and ditching their gas service. Research from Acadia Center shows that amid rising gas rates, New Jerseyans can save money when they swap out their gas HVACs for electric heat pumps. On the high end, New Jersey Natural Gas customers can save 41% of their annual energy bill by making the switch, while South Jersey Gas customers would save 32%. And soon, New Jersey residents will be able to access thousands of dollars in rebates and incentives to adopt the latest clean-energy technologies, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act and new state incentive programs. 

To read the full article from NJ Spotlight News, click here.

Environmentalists demand Northeast governors oppose gas pipeline expansion project

A multistate coalition of over 90 environmental organizations is demanding that the governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York publicly oppose a proposal to expand a major natural gas pipeline in the Northeast.

The company behind the project, Enbridge, says piping more natural gas into the region will help stabilize energy prices, make the electric grid more reliable and help states meet their climate goals by burning less oil on cold days. But the coalition opposing the project — which includes groups like the Sierra Club, the Acadia Center, the Conservation Law Foundation and 350 Mass — disagrees.

“More pipelines will only exacerbate our existing fracked-gas dependence, raise our energy bills, and harm our communities,” the coalition members wrote in letters they recently delivered to the four governors. “In order to mitigate the climate crisis, and to protect our communities, the amount of fossil fuels burned must be decreased immediately and [states must implement] policies that ensure the just and rapid transition to a cleaner, renewable energy-powered regenerative economy.”

To read the full article from wbur, click here.

Advocates urge Governor Healey to oppose major gas expansion proposal

A coalition of climate advocates is calling on Governor Maura Healey to oppose the proposed expansion of a gas pipeline, called “Project Maple,” which they say would hurt frontline communities and worsen the climate crisis.

In a letter sent to Healey on Wednesday, the advocates asked Healey to clarify her stance on the proposed project from the Canadian-based pipeline and energy company Enbridge. Healey has previously said she won’t allow any new gas pipelines, but Project Maple isn’t technically new. The company has proposed building next to existing pipelines and making upgrades to increase capacity.

Given that, Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director at the clean energy advocacy group Acadia Center, said it’s likely that if Project Maple got built, it will “end up being a stranded asset that costs ratepayers a lot more in the longterm.”

To read the full article from the Boston Globe, click here.

Residents Dealt Legal Setback That Will Have A Lasting Impact on Public Health: ‘These Numbers are All People’

Pennsylvania residents awaiting news on a crucial environmental legal battle might want to continue holding their breath — in more ways than one.

RGGI-participating states, which have successfully reduced carbon pollution by 47%, according to a report by the nonprofit Acadia Center, demonstrate the effectiveness of the initiative, and the delay only prolongs the state’s struggle against the health impacts of air pollution.

Pennsylvania’s participation in RGGI had been projected to result in fewer health cases involving asthma, bronchitis, and hospital admissions, and public health benefits totaling up to $6.3 billion by 2030, reports the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

To read the full article from the Cool Down, click here.

How does Rhode Island’s new community choice aggregation program work?

Today, we’re taking a look at Rhode Island’s new energy program, community choice aggregation, and unpacking what it means for consumers.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

Last summer, I got a letter in the mail, welcoming me to the Providence Community Electricity Program.

If you live in Rhode Island, there’s a decent chance you got some version of this letter, too. That’s because last year, seven towns in Rhode Island launched brand new energy programs, called community choice aggregation.

Cameron Leo: To learn more, we talked to Emily Koo, who was Providence’s Director of Sustainability when the city started developing this program.  She says community aggregation has two main goals: lower prices, and more renewable energy.

Emily Koo: In contrast, an investor-owned utility, on the other hand, also has its own bottom line and fiduciary obligations to consider.

To listen to the full podcast from the Public’s Radio, click here.

Mass. Lawmakers Aiming for an Omnibus Climate Bill in 2024

Top legislators in Massachusetts this year hope to pass a major climate and energy bill, which could bring significant permitting and siting reform, and boost transportation and heating electrification.

“It’s going to be a really interesting time,” said Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation at the Acadia Center, a climate-focused nonprofit. Murray praised the steps taken in the previous two bills but added that “we’ve got so many areas we still need to cover.”

Murray of the Acadia Center stressed the importance of securing funding for public transport in the state. According to a recent assessment by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the state would need to invest an additional $2 billion annually through 2036 just to make all the necessary repairs for the existing system. This excludes any potential expansion, resilience or modernization efforts to help the state meet its climate goals.

“We need a more stable funding source for the MBTA [Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority]. I really do think we need to address that at some point in the very near future,” said Murray, while acknowledging the added difficulty of the state’s current financial troubles. Gov. Healey recently proposed a $375 million budget cut to stave off an impending shortfall.

To read the full article from RTO Insider, click here.